How would you design an elevator for blind people?

Interviewer: How would you design an elevator for blind people?

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Shailesh: Okay, let me understand the question; I am assuming that the scope of the elevator isn’t exclusively for blind people; this elevator can be used by ordinary people as well.
Interviewer: yes

Shailesh: When we are designing this elevator, what location are we considering? Is it in a residential setting, shopping mall etc.? I am asking this question because if it is in a commercial environment like shopping malls or offices, in that case, the solution may differ.
Interviewer: for now, you can assume it to be in a residential setting.

Shailesh: Okay, let me reiterate that we will build a common elevator for blind people in the residential setting.
Interviewer: Yes, go-ahead

Shailesh: The way I would like to go about it is first to see all our customer segments. Then will see the customer journey of the blind person and, through that, will be able to tell their use cases. After that, we can design and ideate the solution and prioritise them. From that, we can define some of the success metrics to see the success of our solution. Then we can think of some tradeoffs and future opportunities. This is the broad outlook I would like to take.
Interviewer: Please go ahead.

Customer segment:

Since it is the common elevator, there will be different user personas as follows

1. Blind people (Wholly and partially blind people) [Primary Customer]
2. Ordinary people who aren’t blind
3. Staff members for maintenance and cleanliness of the elevator

We will be prioritising the persona of blind people.

Blind people's user journey broadly:

1. Reach the elevator
2. Press the button for going up or going down?
3. Decide which elevator to enter in case of multiple elevators and enter the elevator.
4. Press the button to the destination floor
5. Wait for the destination floor
6. Reach to the destination floor and check if they have reached the correct floor
7. Exit the elevator

Use Cases

1. As a blind person, I should be to call the elevator quickly.
2. As a blind person, I want to enter the right elevator; I should know if a particular elevator is going down or up? Also, I should be able to know which floor it is?
3. After entering the elevator, I should select which floor I want to go to; even during the rush hour, I should choose the destination floor seamlessly.
4. While transiting between the floors, as a blind person, I should track which floor has just passed or which floor will come.
5. If my floor has come, I should be able to go out of the elevator with ease.

Solution/Features

Use Case 1 -> Features

1. There should be big buttons on each floor near the lift with braille ingrained in it to call the elevator. In addition to that, there should also be a voice assistant button that should tell which floor it is.
2. Alternately, we can have a smart AI-enabled camera outside the elevator that monitors the Queue outside the elevator and automatically stops if someone is waiting against it. It is a feature in addition to the braille buttons. There should be load balancing inside the elevator so that if the elevator is full, it shouldn’t stop in between and communicate outside using voice assistant that the elevator is full.

Use Case 2 -> Features

1. There can be a button inside an elevator pressing which it should tell if it is going down or up; it will be helpful for the blind person to get into the correct elevator in case multiple elevators are coming at the same time.
2. Another better solution can be that elevators are numbered numerically, and blind people should be able to see the numbering of elevators by touching the braille. If the elevator stops at a particular floor, it should say, “Number 3 elevator has arrived, and it is going down”.

Use Case 3 -> Features

After getting inside the elevator, there should be buttons on the railing inside it; pressing it 2 times will take you to the second floor; pressing it 3 times will take you to the third floor. It will be helpful for a blind person or any person, in general, to press the nearest button on the railing. I assume it is a residential building with not more than 6–7 floors; if it is a commercial building, pressing it 20–25 times doesn’t make sense.

Use Case 4/5 -> Features

Elevators should be able to track which floor it had just passed and should be able to tell which floor it is when it stops so that the blind person can move out of it.

As we can see, all the use cases are essential to have a complete solution, but for MVP, we can leave the AI-enabled Queue monitoring camera. We can expand it into the smart elevator with sensors and AI-enabled cameras in the future.

Success metrics

1. No. of buttons pressed on the railings vs number of control pressed in the typical scenario
2. No. of voice hours in a month by pressing the button for identifying the floor
3. No. of blind people using the elevator through a survey in the building.